The Broken Mirror
by LiahFaile
Summary: Created by the 12th division captain, Ayame walks a dangerous path between a failed experiment and a possible solution to the imbalance in soul society. All she wants is to belong. But how can she, when she is only a mirror put back together wrong?
1. Chapter 1

Haaaiiii...

So I've always wondered what the deal was with the DiamondDust Rebellion. What caused the ice zanpakuto to bond with two people? It happened, but rarely. Why, though? A lot of late night coffee and a healthy dose of insanity brings me to write this story. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach!

* * *

><p><em>What have I done?<em>

The 12th division captain studied the pitiful creature before him. Scraggly red hair, fearful amber eyes. She had once been just an ordinary child in the 24th district of Rukongai. Until he had gotten hold of her and some others, of course. She was the only one who had survived this far. Curious. She had looked the weakest.

_Interesting, but not nearly interesting enough. Another failure, it seems. But the Captain General is growing impatient._

The balance of Soul Society was everything. More important than the souls they had sworn to protect, apparently. And although it was just a small nuisance, the issue of fire zanpakutos and ice zanpakutos needed to be solved.

_Hyourinmaru, Sode no Shirayuki, and countless other ice-based zanpakutos, they grow stronger by the day. While fire-based zanpakutos are fading, disappearing. The Tengunmaru is gone, as is the Raika, but most noticeably, the Ryujin Jakka is growing old along with the Captain General._

Was this girl before him really an answer? She now had reiatsu, could now step into the world of the Shinigami, dangerous and unpredictable as it had become. And undoubtedly, as long as her abilities manifested in the right direction, there would be one more shinigami with a fire zanpakuto in their ranks. But was one enough? Surely he'd have to create dozens of others in order to reach the equilibrium. And it had taken so much blasted time to make this one.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri made a frustrated face, the black and white stripes on his face twisting with fury. "Damn you, Captain General!" Why set him on this idiotic task? This was all that damn Hitsugaya's fault!

There had been that entire fiasco with Sojiro Kusaka, another shinigami who had contracted with the same ice zanpakuto spirit. Thank goodness one of them had died. Trying to balance _two_ Hyourinmaru's would be a blasted nightmare.

"Out with you," he said coldly, letting the creature go. She was just a mirror. A broken one, perhaps, but a mirror nevertheless. All she needed was to mirror an ice zanpakuto the other way, and the problem would be solved. Her reiatsu was twisted enough to accomplish it. Hopefully her reiatsu powers would manifest on their own, but if they did not, then he could care less. Truth be told, the 12th division captain had no idea exactly _what_ would happen.

But she would be fire. And that was that. He sent the girl along roughly, until Nemu kindly took her away. The girl was like a broken doll, stumbling behind Nemu, following her like a dog followed its master. She would have no memory for a long time. Mayuri had tried his best not to fiddle around with the creature's reasoning capacity. The brain was fine, as long as it wasn't connected to the reiatsu nerves. Mostly. He believed.

He turned away, eager to move on to more important things. If the Captain General _still_ wasn't satisfied with this, well then, the old bastard could take a trip through Hell's gate and stay there.

.

.

.

The door opened slowly, admitting Ayame into the wide courtyard where the 9th squad members were clustered in groups, waiting for her. Upon seeing her, they fell silent. She scanned their faces, seeing fear, curiosity and even hostility.

"My name is Ayame." She said, hoping her voice carried far enough to reach the ears of the shinigami in the back. "From today on I will be part of the 9th division...please take care of me."

This was met by silence. No one knew what to say. No one knew how to deal with her, because their captain was gone. She wondered what the previous 9th division captain had been like. Kaname Tōusen had been by far the most judicious captain, or so the rumors claimed. She found it hard to understand such a man. But she could understand the betrayal of having been abandoned by someone you looked up to.

Finally, the lieutenant of the 9th division came forward**.** A man with a 69 tattoo on his face stepped up, a scowl on his face. It looked like it was his permanent expression, but Ayame couldn't help but feel a qualm of misgiving. She wasn't wanted here, was she?

"My name is Hisagi Shuuhei, lieutenant of the 9th division." He said roughly, unused to the formalities of being a leader. He scowled at her again, as if it was his way of smiling. "Welcome to our squad."

She heard a whisper somewhere to her left. "That's the mod soul the 12th division created…"

_I'm not a mod soul!_ Ayame whirled around, trying to find the whisperer, but only found increasingly hostile faces. But she had been created, definitely, for some strange purpose that she did not know. At least not yet.

"Tell us a bit about yourself." A voice came from the back, bold.

"I…" she hesitated. How to explain? But she only knew the truth, and couldn't understand enough to tell a lie. "I was from the 24th district in Rukongai…"

But that had been ages ago, before all this happened. As if it were another life. Still, should she just leave it at that? Let them assume that she became a shinigami the normal way; by having inborn reiatsu, by testing into the Shinigami school, and by passing the exams.

"That's a lie," someone else said. She found the voice this time. A golden haired youth with a beard, not kind, but not angry either. "That's where my family is, and I've never seen you."

The inarticulate flashes of memory were gone, snatched away by her confusion. "I…I don't know. I think I was from there," she winced internally. Best not to say 'I think' too much, or else they would start thinking that she had memory problems. "But I was found by the 12th division, who…because they saw a little irregularity in my reiatsu, made me go through a few tests to fix it. But now that it's fixed, I'm a shinigami now. Or so I think. Um…"

"That's it?" A little blankly, the golden haired youth stared at her. If anything, he looked a little disappointed. "You're not some freaky mod soul? Not some monster? You're not even a spy from the 12th division? This is the first time they've ever let someone transfer from the 12th division."

Ayame blushed and scratched her head, "I don't think they would make me a spy. I'm too bad at lying."

They had told her that she was just a simple Rukongai orphan in District 24, plucked off by the 12th division to be a test subject. Originally, someone with no reiatsu at all. But now, she did. Thanks to something they did.

"Then are you really a shinigami?" Jokingly disbelieving, someone raised a taunt.

"Show us your zanpakutō!" A challenge. Ayame stiffened, unsure of what to expect.

"Yeah, show us your soul-cutter!"

"Even better, disarm Hisagi within 10 moves!"

"I bet she can't do it!"

"I bet she can."

"I bet she can't! He's the lieutenant after all."

"I bet she can. Hisagi's sluggish lately."

"Remember the last hollow attack? Plain sloppy, that time."

Hisagi scowled at them, "Will you shut up about that?"

There was money being passed around. Ayame flushed when she saw the odds against her.

"They're not going to let up once they place the bets." Hisagi told her stiffly, obviously wondering whether he should apologize or not. "Might as well get it over with before they get serious. But that also means you can bet, if you want."

Ayame frowned, unsettled by the racous calls for a fight. Even so, she clenched her sword, pulling it out. "I don't have any money." _But I don't want to lose. Would that mean I'm artificial? To lose? If it's like that, then I can't! But how can I win against a lieutenant?_

Hisagi attacked first, to the cheers of the crowd, moving into an offensive position that surprised her into jumping back and blocking first. Then it quickly became a cycle. Him attacking, her defending. It was hard to do anything but react. Clangs rang into the rowdy air, blending into the shouts and taunts. The hot air did nothing to calm them down, but rather quickened their blood instead. A fight between the new recruit and the leiutenant, a standard practice to initiate a new member into the 9th division.

She slipped underneath a high swipe of his sword, but didn't dare get too close to Hisagi. He was too fast with his sword, and she was just a mirror. Her move drew few cheers, but it was quickly apparent to the crowd that Ayame was barely holding her own. She was a mirror, they had said. Well then, why was she having such a hard time finding an opening to attack? The only thing she could do was defend?

Her opponent frowned as well, and then dove neatly into an undercut slash. The blow was harder this time. She had to twist her entire body to avoid it, but frustration made her add in another step and a slash, even though it was risky. Hisagi took a step back, and Ayame finally saw her chance. With a leap, she attacked, adding her other hand to the sword to increase the strength of the blow. Too late, she realized, as the point of the sword neared Hisagi's heart. She didn't know how to stop –

There was a screech of metal against metal as her attack was blocked.

_Damn_, she thought. But there was no time for thought. She moved. Her brain told her to do so, told her what to do and how to do it. They had said she was a mirror. And it had taken so damn long to stop defending.

There was a shout from the crowd, nearly distracting her. Hisagi was distracted. He looked away. She raised her sword, but he glanced at her once, not coldly, but to let her know that he was still on guard. "What's happening?" He called out.

Ayame let her sword drop to her side. She looked down, afraid that she had broken some rule. Hisagi did not seem to notice. The answer had concerned him.

"Fire!" Someone was shouting. "Fire! Fire in the barracks! Somebody call Hitsugaya over or get some water! There's a fire!"

.

* * *

><p>Cliffhangy xD Sorry!<p>

So, how was it? Wasn't _that _bad, was it? I hope not. Anyway, reviews would do a lot for this worn out soul. Please review with some feedback! Ayame's a mirror; she's been programmed to copy the first ice zanpakuto she sees, but her twisted reiatsu will change it into its opposite. Thing is, she's the first experiment that Mayuri's tried this on, so the intended results are rather unclear. It could be a weak copy, it could be quite strong. It could blow up in everyone's face like a coke that's been shaken too long.

Thanks for reading~!


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the delay. Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted to clear up Ayame's character traits a bit in here. I hope she came across as a more realistic individual instead of a mary-sue. MSMD.

* * *

><p><em>More than anything else, I just want to be strong.<em>

But when the fire broke out, Ayame's first instinct was to find a nice dark place to cower under. The glow of flames was faintly visible from her corner of the courtyard, the black smoke just beginning to curl over the rooftops. Apparently, one of the lamps had fallen over in one of the officer's barracks. The makeshift wooden planks, still in place due to the latest conflicts, burned easily.

Ayame looked around wildly, but the courtyard was despairingly empty of hiding places. She hung back from the crowd that pressed forward, eager to see what was going on. Hisagi turned away and shot off without so much as a glance in her direction, so Ayame wondered if she had been dismissed. A sneaky, uncomfortable sense of dread filled her from head to toe. A fire on her first day was bad luck.

As cries for water filled the courtyard, the other shinigami organized themselves. They sent runners for buckets, made lines. Ayame timidly joined one of the lines, finding herself jostled in between two heavily muscled men. When the buckets came, loaded with water and looking frighteningly heavy, she reached out for the handle – but the man on her right handed it directly to the man on her left, bypassing her entirely.

Stunned, Ayame paused for a few moments, staring at nothing. She felt distinctly foolish for a moment. It wasn't as if she could handle that huge bucket of water anyway. It was far too heavy for her. She would have dropped it, splashed water all over the place. She would have made a spectacle of herself, wasted precious water and time.

Just as silently as she came, she withdrew from the bucket line. Stepping back, she could see the entire situation a little better. The flames had, somehow, risen onto the rooftops, engulfing the dry straw and defying any attempts by frantic shinigami to put it out. The flames had turned to a bright yellow – orange color, and the sound of crackling told her that the sparks had begun to fly. The fire was out of control.

"Quick! You!" Someone yelled at her from the fire line, and Ayame jumped at the authoritative voice. "Go and run and get other shinigami from the other divisions! We need help here!"

Without looking to see who it was, Ayame nodded at no one in particular and sprinted out of the courtyard. The layout of the buildings for the thirteen divisions was complex, and the similar corridors quickly confused her. "Fire!" She cried out as loudly as she could. "Fire in the barracks!"

"I know already!" A group of shinigami, led by a captain in a white haori, blasted past her. The captain was a white-haired old man, with a blue sword strapped to his back. Ayame turned, hand flying to the hilt of her own zanpakuto. An immense, unbearable pressure of reiatsu filled the air, nearly sent her down to her knees.

Since she stood just outside of the entrance to the courtyard, she saw everything. In an instant, the framework for the burning buildings collapsed in a roar of sparks and flares of wind. Ayame watched as the white captain drew his sword, and saw two great wings of ice burst out of his back.

Like dragon wings, they were immense, and the captain lifted clear into the air. The black lines on the back of his haori fluttered in the wind for a moment, and then settled into the symbol for the 10th Division.

"Captain Hitsugaya!" Someone cheered. Ayame was distracted from the beautiful wings for a moment, and glanced at the crowd of people who had gathered. No one was near the burning buildings now.

With one sweep of his sword, a giant ice dragon burst out of the tip. An explosion hurt Ayame's ears, and she covered them with a flinch. When she opened her eyes, it was all over.

_What kind of power is this?_ She thought, horrified and fascinated at the same time. _What is he? A monster? Captains are really something…_

The captain sheathed his sword in a fluid motion. Before him, it seemed as if winter had blown through an entire section of the courtyard and frozen a good portion of it. Ice drifts piled up on the edges, and a giant wave of ice covered the ruined wood. The fire was gone, just like that.

When he turned around, Ayame realized that she was gripping her zanpakuto with more force than necessary. She let go of it, more out of shock than of anything else. The old captain was actually a kid, and a short one at that. He was scowling, but the expression was cold and distant. An air of importance came from his demeanor, even though he was shorter than nearly all the adults that surrounded him.

_If I had that power_, Ayame thought momentarily, and then drew back with a fierce shake of her head. But the twinge of jealousy remained. Here was this young child, already a captain, respected by everyone. And she was…a nobody picked off from the streets of the Rukongai.

She poked her head and glanced into the courtyard again, only to find that Captain Hitsugaya had finished scolding Hisagi, and was leaving. Ayame clenched her teeth, wondering how strong she would become if she fought him. She was a mirror, right? Would she be able to…?

Too late, the captain had crossed the threshold of the gates. He was less an arm's reach away, could easily be reached by a swing of the sword. But Ayame kept her back to the wall, firmly looking down at the ground, too terrified to even move. The pressure of his reiatsu made it hard to think, let alone move.

.

Several paces away from the 9th division gates, Hitsugaya paused as a chill of malevolence raked over his skin. He glanced back, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. A lone shinigami stood guard outside the gates, and the rest were busy clearing the debris. The bad feeling followed him for the rest of the walk back to his division.

The fire had started spontaneously. It couldn't have been a spilled lamp, or any misplaced kido spell. Somehow, in the empty barracks, the temperature had either gotten too warm or someone had deliberately thrown in a match. The longer he thought about it, the more it bothered him. Something evil was coming, and this fire was just the beginning.


	3. Chapter 3

Hitsugaya's anime character is voiced by Ed from Fullmetal alchemist?

OMG!

LOVE angsty characters!

* * *

><p>If that had been the only time they met, Ayame thought it would've been fine. But they met once again, in the forests outside of the Seireitei. And again, it was because of a fire.<p>

But one Ayame had made, this time. She had been tasked with making the camp fire in her group, and she did what she was told, head down, eyes to the ground. Since her joining the division, she had made no friends. There were no other girls her age in the division, and girls were rare enough. The shinigami treated her with wary acceptance, and she returned the same. At least the nonsense about her being a spy for the 12th division was more or less settled.

They were out looking for hollows again. Due to the recent wars, holes kept on appearing on the boundaries between Hueco Mundo and Soul Society. The reports of a monster terrorizing District 57 pointed pretty clearly to a hollow. A strong one.

So that was why, three weeks into the job, Ayame was sitting by herself tending to the campfire while everyone else was hollow hunting.

"I'm not that weak," she muttered to herself, throwing a thick log carelessly aside. "I ought to train myself more, but that won't do any good."

She fought strangely, the others had found out. Thanks to her nature as a mirror, there was no way she would ever be able to win a fight. The best she could do was to hold her own, and wait for as long as it took for someone else to come along and finish the opponent off.

"What took you so long?" Hisagi thundered, after her patrol had come back from the eastern side. "Does it really take that long to finish off a hollow?"

Her patrol glanced at her. Ayame had looked down, unable to answer. She could fight, but she couldn't win. She could defend indefinitely, she found, after she had provoked an attack from the yellow hornets. But she had been stuck in the forest for hours until Hisagi had happened to come by on patrol.

"How long have you been out here?" he thundered (Hisagi tended to thunder when he spoke)

And then Ayame had promptly gotten sick.

So there were side effects, she thought sullenly. At any rate, she did not attempt to provoke the hornets again. Not worth it.

The snap of a twig startled her into dropping the pile of sticks in her arms. She was instantly alert. Was it the hornets again? Could hornets remember the faces of the people who stab their hives? Could hornets even hold a grudge?

"What do you think you're doing?" an irritated voice came from behind her. She spun around, recognizing the voice as the one belonging to the young, white haired captain.

The fire was frozen over. Even the flames had been preserved within the ice, unnaturally still.

"What are you - hey!" she couldn't hold in her exasperation. "It took me forever to get that going!" The. She remembered that this was a captain she was talking to, and her face drained of blood.

"I mean..."

"If you're here to hunt hollows, then the smoke from the fire is a dead giveaway. Don't you know that?"

A little miffed, Ayame nodded. She was unsure how she should treat him; he looked too young to have any authority over her. "Captain, there's an explanation for this - "

He crossed his arms impatiently, looking like he was ready to scold her at a moment's notice. Ayame was now starting to feel a little indignant. Did he think that just because he had a higher rank that he knew everything?

"-I'm not with my division. I'm a decoy." She looked bitterly at the frozen fire, still wondering _how _he could have done that, to have frozen the flames so perfectly. "Or that was supposed to be my job, anyway."

The captain frowned.

.

In the 12th division headquarters, Captain Kurotsuchi looked at a blinking notice on his large screen, and hummed in interest.

_Specimen 319 is currently in contact with an ice zanpakuto wielder with an achieved bankai state?_ H_e _felt a compulsory need to click for information, and being a compulsive personality, did so promptly. On the other screen, Captain Yamamoto continued to drone on about the failure of the last spirit-pressure generator in some worthless district which had caused blah blah blah.

This was more interesting. Captain Kurotsuchi's face broke out into a demonic smile.

_Ice Zanpakuto code: Hyorinmaru._

_Hitsugaya. The strongest ice-sword wielder in all of soul society. And Specimen 319, a mirror that reflects ice reiatsu and transforms it into the opposite, creating balance. Or at least that's the theory.  
><em>

Personally, the 12th division captain just wanted to test some variables, maybe get some data. Ignoring the 1st division captain completely and turning all of his attention to the other screen, Kurotsuchi Mayuri pressed a very large, very red button.

.

Ayame froze. Her vision blanked out for a frightening moment, and then when she could see again, everything was clearer. Sharper. She breathed in suddenly, and was astounded by the number of scents that she could identify.

And next came the bloodlust.

With a yell, she pulled out her sword, startling the white-haired captain. Still a little blind, and completely disoriented, Ayame slashed it wildly, and her sword embedded itself into a nearby tree, sinking almost an entire feet in.

"What's going on? Are you being possessed or something?" Captain Hitsugaya jumped back, but did not pull out his sword.

By this time, the rage swirling inside of Ayame had all settled on one person, the only person there. She slowly pulled her sword out of the tree, tugging it easily, even though it should have taken a strength several times past her capacity. Her gaze flicked to him, and Hitsugaya felt a very real and very familiar shock.

Her eyes were red. And he had met her before.

"You were the guard at the gate." He remained where he was, but his demeanor changed into something that could snap into a fight at any moment. "That aura. That bloodlust. It was from _you_?" Hitsugaya watched as Ayame slowly took another swing, getting used to her new senses, gradually focusing her rage into action. "What _are _you?"

"RAAAAGGGH!" Ayame charged, but Hitsugaya stepped away from her blow easily, still talking.

"You're the new recruit, aren't you? I don't hear much, but didn't you transfer from the 12th division? The day the fire broke out, was that your first day too?"

Ayame spun and attacked, but Hitsugaya was already somewhere else. She growled in frustration, only thinking of blood.

"They must have done something to you." Hitsugaya dropped down from a branch overhead, peering into her face with a calculating expression. "Normal shinigami don't change personalities so easily. Damn that Kurotsuchi! He's always up to no good!"

This time, Ayame was a little faster. Her blade whipped near his throat, but he flicked it away with the hilt of his sword, without drawing it from its sheath.

"Damn you!" She screamed, and then _moved._

Hitsugaya had to turn around and pull his sword out this time, as Ayame somehow got behind him.

Their swords clanged together in high tones, and Hitsugaya was surprised to find that the red-eyed shinigami's strength would not give. That unnatural color in a person's face made him uneasy. There had been too many strange creatures about. Bounts and Gholems and strange spirits. How he longed to go back to the good old days when he could still trust soul society to be the supreme, infallible system it had always been. Damn Aizen. Everything was falling apart.

He glared into her red eyes to show her that he wasn't scared. "Okay, this has gone on long enough." He decided, and then attacked fiercely.

She dodged it. She shouldn't have been able to, but she did. Hitsugaya twisted his sword and followed up without breaking stride, but allowed an alarmed shock to jolt through his veins. He had used that move only moments before. How had she been able to replicate it perfectly?

_What _is _this person? Is it even a person? Or -_

"Damn!" He blocked a little too late, allowing the sleeve of his haori to be cut. Inwardly, Hitsugaya groaned. The 1st division captain would get on his case about that later.

The red-eyed shinigami was fighting completely differently, almost as if her personality was changing from moment to moment. At first she had been nothing more than a wild bundle of emotion and concentration. Now, with the skills there, and the precision, she was rapidly becoming more dangerous.

_What is going_ on_?_

Hitsugaya hated to be forced into this position. It was unnecessary. It was unusual, and Rangiku would probably never let him live it down. But still, he needed to get this over with fast, because his battle sense was telling him that the longer he dragged this out the worse the odds would become of him winning.

"Freeze," he hissed, drawing upon the reiatsu inside of him to activate his shikai. "Hyorinmaru!"

.

Captain Kurotsuchi cackled in glee. Subject 319 was performing admirably so far. No blips, no glitches, no sudden kneeling over, no deaths. Apparently he was more of a genius than he gave himself credit for.

"Captain! Captain! Are you listening to me?" Old man Yamamoto's bushy eyebrows moved irritably, but the gleeful 12th division captain merely shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm sure you have better things to do, 1st division captain."

"...Impudent fool."

Living up to expectations, Captain Kurotsuchi switched off the monitor and the old man's face blacked out.

.

The rumble of energy terrified Ayame. Somehow she had been fighting on par with a captain, although admittedly he had not become serious yet. At first she had felt nothing but rage toward him, but now, a colder, calculating side was taking over her actions.

She was different in this state. Stronger. Less limited by the weak body and mirrored moves available to her. As long as she could hold on to this state, she would definitely be strong.

And it looked like the more powerful her opponent, the stronger she'd become.

Her sword began to hum in response to the pressure of reiatsu around her. Ayame grinned wildly, unable to control herself. She'd no longer be considered a weakling, no longer considered a nobody. Her thoughts flashed back to the dark corners of the poor streets in the Rukongai. _I will never go back to that. Never._

But just before she could raise her sword, Hisagi's voice cut through her concentration. "Captain Hitsugaya! What in the Soul King's name is going on?"

* * *

><p>Have I ever told you that I love reviews almost as much as I love Roy from Fullmetal Alchemist? That is to say, quite a lot.<p>

Reviews make me happy! Plus they make me update faster. So click the button down there and type something! Go Go Go!

Thanks for reading~


	4. Chapter 4

The sound of Hisagi's voice startled Ayame so much that she almost dropped her sword. In a blink, Captain Hitsugaya had the blade to her neck and a fierce tug sent her to her knees, completely unable to move.

"Captain! What's the meaning of this?"

Ayame coughed, before Hitsugaya could answer, and promptly threw up everything she had eaten in the last few days.

Just as quickly as before, the young Captain withdrew his sword and got out of the way. "Hisagi, where is the rest of your division?"

Hisagi angrily pulled Hitsugaya away, his dark eyebrows furrowed, making the scar on his cheek even more pronounced. "The hollows went through a sekai-mon, but we suspect that they might still be in Soul Society. I came here because I was worried that they'd go for Ayame and her fire. But then I find this!" Hisagi was not a man to lose his temper easily, but he was coming dangerously close. Temper or not, he looked out for his subordinates. "Captain -"

"Stop making assumptions!" Hitsugaya frowned, and then eyed Ayame uneasily. She was still kneeling on the forest floor, gripping her head in pain and making soft whimpers. "I've never seen anything like this before either, so I can't explain clearly. I suspect the 12th division captain knows something about the way she suddenly attacked me, though."

"She _what_?"

Hitsugaya felt a headache coming. "I ran into her making a fire, and in the middle of talking she suddenly attacked me." He remembered something. "And her eyes, they turned red, pupils and irises. At first she was just swinging her sword with a lot of strength, but then..."

Hisagi ignored the Captain's uneasy pause, and strode over to where Ayame was huddled. "Captain Hitsugaya, the entire time I have known this shinigami, I have never seen her attack anything, not even a Hollow. Everything she does is self-defense."

He lifted Ayame's chin up, so that he could see her eyes. They were a dull brown-amber color. Up close, she looked like she was in a terrible shape. Little tremors kept on wracking her body, and the gaunt, bloodless cast of her face reminded him of the last time he had seen this happen. That time a horde of wasps had attacked her, seemingly out of nowhere. At the time, he had thought that Ayame merely had an allergic reaction to bee stings.

Captain Hitsugaya shifted uneasily when he saw that her eye color had changed. "I'm telling the truth."

"I believe you." Hisagi stared hard at Ayame, who shook her head slightly as a little bit of awareness returned to her eyes. She glanced at Hitsugaya, and then at Hisagi. The expression on her face was devastated.

"I never lied to you either," she managed. Suddenly, she pushed his hand away from her face, allowing her red hair to obscure her expression. "I'm _not _a mod soul…or anything like that. I just happen to be different. Am I not allowed to be different?"

_Shit, _Hisagi glanced back at Hitsugaya, a little panicked. _I think she's gonna cry…_

_.  
><em>

Captain Kurotsuchi watched the events unfolding before him with a thoughtful expression. His original intent had been to sacrifice specimen 319 to the young, self-righteous captain and start developing a new model with less obvious mirroring capabilities. After all, this little girl had already drawn suspicion to herself as a strange one - and had obvious ties to the 12th division. It would've been better if she had been disposed of quickly.

However...

His finger hovered over the keyboard, one command away from destroying all evidence of his top-secret work. Why was he hesitating? Well, call it a hunch. Or intuition. Perhaps it was simply a mad scientist's desire to see his creation burn to the bitter end.

He looked at the image of Specimen 319's gaunt face and unfocused eyes. It was a regrettable side-effect, but it didn't seem deadly. Already, life was returning, and the specimen was functioning again. Apparently, the sudden intrusion of the Lieutenant had broken the balance of the conflict, clearly shifting the battle in favor of Hitsugaya. As a result, the girl had snapped out of her red-eyed state in shock. It was a delicate system, alright, but somehow Kurotsuchi was certain that the girl would have gone on fighting indefinitely.

The 12th division captain had not been able to prevent Hisagi from entering and interrupting the fight, although it had been clear that Hitsugaya would have won anyway. A bankai was not something that could be replicated so easily.

Or...could it? His golden-yellow eyes flicked to the chart on another screen, in which one particular irregularity stood out in stark contrast to all of his previous theories and conjunctions. The specimen's reiatsu had spiked, moments before Captain Hitsugaya had fully activated his bankai. He couldn't tell yet if it had reached the level of a captain, but this was enough to give him pause.

And now, in one of his rarer moments, Captain Kurotsuchi was having a hard time deciding whether or not to terminate a project or not.

What if it was truly an irregularity? It had been no easy task creating a mirror. For some reason, all the others had died and this one had not. Could it be that Specimen 319 actually had some inherent, special property that was hard to come by? Captain Kurotsuchi could replicate results, but only to a point. As a scientist, he knew not to underestimate the biological variety of different souls.

His fingers came down on the keyboard with a light _clack_ without pressing any buttons.

Gone were all thoughts of Captain Yamamoto's orders to create balance between the fire and ice zanpakutos. Instead, he had found something much more worthy of his attention. The 12th division captain threw his head back and cackled manically, certain that soon, very soon, he'd have an invincible army.

.

Ayame felt a shudder run throughout her entire body, as if her life had just been spared. Before her, Hisagi dropped his hand, looking slightly regretful. Briefly, she wondered if he had ever even wanted this useless, strange transfer from the 12th division. Had Captain Kurotsuchi ordered him, as a Captain to a Lieutenant, to accept a shinigami from the 12th division? Had she been forced upon his division like a piece of trash thrown into the sewer?

That brief thought, however, was interrupted by the sound of shinigami crashing through the woods. "Hisagi!" Someone called out familiarly. It was the 9th division. "Lieutenant Hisagi!"

"I should be going," Captain Hitsugaya looked unusually worried, his eyebrows coming together and making him look older than he was. "Hisagi, I'll leave this shinigami to you."

"'_Ayame'_," Hisagi said harshly, but then his voice softened. "Ayame, not 'this shinigami' or 'this experiment' or whatever. She's a part of the 9th division and she's the same as us. I'll deal with her the same way I deal with any of my subordinates."

Hitsugaya nodded. "I'm sorry...Ayame. Hisagi, if you need my help, you can always find me at the 10th division headquarters." And then he was gone, leaving with the speed of a captain.

Ayame let out a small gasp, unaware of the huge pressure that had been present the entire time that the white-haired captain had been there. She almost staggered forward, but caught herself by seizing Hisagi's arm. "_Did you mean that?_"

He blinked at her, and then his frown was back in full force. "What?"

She didn't answer, only grinned at him stupidly until the rest of the 9th division burst into the clearing.

.

_Shit,_ Hisagi's scowl deepened before the crowd of shinigami before him. _They're gonna be asking me some awkward questions later. _To prevent this, he spoke up first.

"WHERE IS THE HOLLOW?" He thundered.

"I got it," Jinbei raised his hand, trying to look cool and pleased with himself at the same time. "It wasn't anything special."

Hisagi sighed internally. So they really hadn't needed his help after all. Then, a sudden thought struck him. "I thought we were going to meet up back in the barracks. How did you remember where to find this place?"

They looked at him strangely. "Easy! The fire that Ayame made."

Hisagi stiffened, and then turned slowly to look at the raging fire in the middle of the clearing.

"We wanted to make sure Ayame was still okay," Jinbei continued talking, but the rest of his words filtered through to Hisagi's ears in a roar of confusion. "...was worried...hollow...fire..."

When Hisagi had first entered the clearing, there had been no smoke and no fire. It had been clearly encased in ice up until a moment ago, as evidence of the fight between Captain Hitsugaya and Ayame. The Captain's ice did not melt easily. It shouldn't have disappeared so fast. Watching the fire, only Hisagi's eyes were sharp enough to notice the chunks of ice around the fire that slowly melted into splinters, and then water that disappeared slowly into the greedy earth.

.

* * *

><p>Yaaay! Thank you so much for reviewing and commenting and smiling at my previous chapter! I don't know what happened but suddenly inspiration just <em>struck<em>, like lightning.

I never expected so much out of this simple story. Please keep on reviewing!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone~

Thank you for reading this far!

I had originally intended for this to be a really lighthearted fic about Hitsugaya's mirror character. But my beta reader called my poor Ayame a Mary Sue over and over again.

(That equates to hitting her with a flowerpot numerous times)

So it turned out like this.

Haha...*goes into a corner to cry.

.

.

"Lieutenaaant~" Rangiku Matsumoto tipped her drink back and swallowed the remaining sake in one gulp. Hisagi looked up too, and was immediately distracted from his pitiful attempts to get drunk. The 10th division Lieutenant had a pouty face and a hooded gaze. She was already a beauty, with her flaming red hair and huge rack. Hisagi would have gotten a nosebleed under normal circumstances, but he was too preoccupied with other things at the moment.

"Lieutenaaant!"

Hisagi's eyes snapped back to her face. "What?"

"Can you tell me something?" Rangiku played with the cup in between her fingers, "I'm reaaaly curious."

"About what?"

"Oh, some rumors that have been flying around lately..."

Hisagi was instantly somber. "What?"

"Tell me," Rangiku paused, and then suddenly switched topics. "Shuuhei, do you like anybody at the moment?"

Hisagi was completely floored with surprise.

Rangiku let the silence stretch uncomfortably, looking expectant. When Hisagi still didn't answer for a full minute, Rangiku sighed.

"I guess it's true after all," She said to one side, sounding disappointed.

"Wait no! WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?" Hisagi thundered.

"Hisagi," Rangiku winced. "You thunder too much when you speak."

Hisagi looked down, troubled.

"It's the new girl, her name is Ayame. Some of the other shinigami in your division often see her smiling at you. And apparently she never smiles at anybody else."

Hisagi groaned, wishing that he could bang his head into the table. "It's not like that."

"Then tell me~"

Hisagi laced his fingers together and leaned forward. "I am worried about her though," he said in a confiding tone. "She has caused more trouble than any new member of the 9th division. But none of it's her fault. It's the twelfth division captain."

"How?"

"She's...now don't you tell anybody, Rangiku - I think she was experimented on as a member of the twelfth division, and there's something wrong with her. Dangerous situations change her into a completely different person."

"What's she usually like?"

Hisagi had to consider the question for a while. "Quiet, maybe. Like she's not even there. Ayame still hasn't made any friends since coming to the 9th division. I wonder if she misses her friends in her old division."

Rangiku never refilled her cup or his. Thinking back on it later, Hisagi would find her behavior just a little off. What he didn't know was that every word of his would be relayed back to Captain Hitsugaya later.

But at the moment Rangiku was just a drunken buddy, ready to listen to all of Hisagi's troubles. "I don't get it!" He burst out. "Usually she's a pacifist. Like my old Captain...she should be in the fourth division or something instead. Not in the 9th, where we have to fight to defend the Rukongai...Fighting isn't for her. Its not in her nature, I can tell."

"How?"

Hisagi paused. "I...don't really know, actually."

It was her fighting style. All defense, and halfhearted attempts to strike. And she had been so afraid of hurting him...

"That's right, you don't really know her that well right?" Rangiku leaned forward too, confidingly. "Why don't you go and ask her to tell the truth?"

"It /is/ the truth!" Hisagi slammed his cup down, put his head in his hands. "She said she was bad at lying..."

o

o

o

Ayame swept the courtyard, feeling strangely at peace. There had been no authorities in masks, no handcuffs. She hadn't died suddenly yet, and ever since that day, there had been no sign of her red-eyed state returning.

And so a week passed by.

If anything, Lieutenant Hisagi seemed to be more than willing to forget the whole incident. Ayame had wondered what the punishment would be like. But actually, it hadn't been much.

"Sweeping again, Ayame?" Said a shinigami passing by, from the 9th division. He sounded sympathetic.

"Yep!" Ayame returned, poking her broom at a particularly nasty crack in the cobblestones. Waves of dust ballooned out, making her sneeze. The courtyard hadn't been swept in ages.

"Dunno what you did to make the Lieutenant so mad at you, but hang in there." The shinigami advised.

Ayame nodded in response. She didn't particularly think that Lieutenant Hisagi was angry with her. She hadn't seen much of him since that day, but it wasn't as if she was being banned from the division. There was no reason to complain. Everything was going great..

.

o

"Good, good." Captain Kurotsuchi rubbed his hands together and cackled. "They're coming along great! Aren't they, Nemu?"

The tall, dark haired woman held a clipboard in her hands and stood quietly before a large pen full of cages. When she looked up, her face was impassive.

"Specimen 411 doesn't seem to be doing that well," She observed.

Indeed, in one of the cages in the far back corner, a young redheaded boy was trembling and shaking. He was naked to the waist, and his bone structure showed through the pale skin. His eyes rolled around as if he were having a seizure.

"Probably won't make it." The Captain said callously. "Make sure his body is disposed of before the others get too upset."

"Yes sir." Nemu replied.

"What a wonderful sight," The Captain leaned back in admiration. Before him were fifty or more cages with kidnapped orphans from the Rukongai, all modified, but with improvements. The rejection and elimination stage would take another two days. Those who could not handle the change would die, but the ones who survived would be the chosen ones. They would be an extremely powerful army, loyal to Captain Kurotsuchi only.

And they would change Soul Society forever. 


	6. Chapter 6

Guys, I sincerely apologize for the long time in between updates. Being a senior in high school is really scary~ *cries

And the conclusion comes closer!

* * *

><p>"Last time one out of 350 survived, and that was specimen 319." Captain Kurotsuchi laced his fingers and studied the pitiful creatures before him. "Then again, only the last hundred stood much of a chance, as the first 300 were just for data collection. That was a success rate of around 1%."<p>

It had been a very busy two days. The first division Captain, thankfully, had other business to attend to. Unfortunately, that also meant that Captain Kurotsuchi had to deal with a lot of unnecessary paperwork as well.

But everything was now going as planned.

"This time, out of a total of 56, 4 have survived. That gives about a 7% success rate. Worse than I expected, but still quite an improvement."

Specimen 411, 424, 429, and 448 stood before him, eyes downcast. They were as surprising as the first batch. First was the skinny redheaded boy, who had nearly died in the first few minutes of the operation. Now he stood with his hands at his sides, looking afraid.

Next was a tall, dark boy with a strong physique and hair cropped close to his skull. He had an uncommon bloodlust, was almost an unthinking creature. He stared down the 12th division captain like a panther would.  
>Then there was one of two twins, the elder, Captain Kurotsuchi believed. She was an angry girl, with long dark hair streaked with dirt and tears. Her pale, fish-like eyes were blank.<br>Finally, tugging at his ear compulsively was a young boy, almost half as tall as the tall dark one. He had been the youngest out of all of them.

Strange, again. They had seemed less than human even before the operation, which was intended to improve ordinary souls with little reiatsu. One lacked courage, another lacked brains. The elder twin probably lost her only family left when she lost her younger twin very early on. And the youngest lacked age, experience. Had Specimen 319, too, been lacking something before the operation?

.

.

.

Captain Hitsugaya made her sit down in a wooden chair in the middle of the room. He looked serious but professional, as if he dealt with shinigami like her every day.

"I have a few questions to ask of you."

Ayame sat very still. A distinct throbbing behind her ears was familiar, although the male that sat before her looked completely different than Captain Kurotsuchi. Ice blue eyes instead of amber. Serious instead of mocking.

She wanted to throw up again, but gripped the sides of her chair. The roaring got louder.

"Is that okay with you?"

"...Okay."

The white-haired captain wasted no time getting down to business. "What do you recall of what Captain Kurotsuchi did to you?"

Her lips barely moved. "You mean as an experiment subject?"

"Yes. And don't be afraid, just speak up."

Ayame knew it had been too good to be true. The weeks of silence, of an illusion of safety. All that had been shattered the moment a white-haired Captain had invited her into his office for an interrogation. But what did it matter now? She spoke fiercely, accusingly, clearly enough for the Captain to hear:

"I was the only one that survived out of hundreds. We were all kids, the oldest didn't look older than seventeen. He made us fight, sometimes, in cages that were smaller than this room. But nobody died from the fights."

Hitsugaya's eyes sharpened. "Woah, slow down. Hundreds?"

"All from the Rukongai." Her words slipped out slower, now, now that she knew for sure that her words would not mean death. Why hadn't she died yet? Why hadn't Captain Kurotsuchi noticed? What was that evil scientist planning?

"But...hundreds?"

"Orphans. Nobodies. You'd be surprised, Captain, if you knew what it was like out there." She let out a short laugh, still nervous. And then, in a rush - "He's going to kill me, you know."

"Who?"

"Captain...the Captain with the painted face. He's got a implant in my brain, says it can kill me whenever he wants. He could kill me with just a thought, and I wouldn't be able to do nothing about it. He says he's always watching too, to see if I'm successful or not."

"Successful...what? What are you talking about?"

Ayame was silent for a moment. And then: "Can I see your bankai?"

Captain Hitsugaya studied her for a moment. "Why?"

"It's just a simple request, nothing more."

It couldn't cause too much harm, Captain Hitsugaya thought. The girl didn't look dangerous, at least not now. She had her hands in her lap and her red hair down, obscuring half of her face. There was nothing in her demeanor that resembled the red-eyed, vicious monster from the forest. So he nodded shortly, deciding.

"Come with me."

.

.

.

"Hey," a shinigami nudged his friend, noticing something strange going on in the 10th division courtyard. "Is that our Captain's shikai?"

There was a sudden roar of commotion, and both the shinigami and his friend jolted up from their game of dice. From their point of view, the entire courtyard was open to view, and it was clear that someone had just been attacked. Was it a duel?

"What's going on?"

The commotion got louder, a buzzing excitement which infected everyone who saw. A silver sword lashed through the air, crashed against another sword in a loud clang. It was Captain Hitsugaya alright, his face twisted with concentration. He visibly shifted his grip on his hilt and forcefully pushed his opponent back. And his opponent -

"It's the 9th division mod soul!"

"Idiot! She's not a mod soul, just a transfer."

Red hair flying, crouching low, the transferred shinigami in question seemed to be completely intent on killing the Captain. With a quick step, almost a shunpo, she lunged forward and locked swords with the Captain again. "Your bankai," she said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Captain Hitsugaya escaped again, but this time his forehead was creased with more than confusion. Tensely, he stared at Ayame for a few moments. Was this all part of Captain Kurotsuchi's design too? Was Ayame, even now, being controlled by the madman?

But if he delayed any longer, then he was in serious danger. The girl was frightening him a little, with her sudden personality changes and irrational behavior. "Get out of the way!" He shouted to his division. "I said _move!_"

_Even if it's the last thing I'll do, _he thought, staring into inhuman red eyes, _I'll make you pay for messing with me, Kurotsuchi._

_"Bankai!"  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>Review~<br>_

I'm thinking that there'll only be a couple more chapters left! Maybe this'll be my first chapter fic to finish! I'm gonna need all the support there is, so please review and tell me what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

Heeeeey~

So about the way that Hisagi talks to Hitsugaya, I actually made their conversation very informal despite the whole Lieutenant/Captain thing. Rangiku is friends with Hisagi, and it's pretty obvious that she still considers Hitsugaya as a brother that's younger than her. I think it's be very strange if Hisagi actually did address Hitsugaya very formally, since they have been through a lot together throughout the years and Hitsugaya is younger...

But that's just my rationale. If you have any other thoughts, please share! I'd love to hear them!

* * *

><p>"Bankai," they said simultaneously.<p>

Wings of fire exploded out of her back, sending several who were too close staggering backwards. Hitsugaya wheeled upwards into the sky, fighting for height, his extra years of experience giving him several dozen feet of an advantage. Then Ayame figured it out too, more by imitation than by skill, clumsily shooting upwards in a wild, erratic ascent.

She held her sword in front of her, arms down far enough to make it a defensive stance, despite charging at him with reckless speed. Hitsugaya strained upwards until the air became chilly and thin. He had just agreed to battle. No, he had been forced into this fight. And he did not like it one bit.

Her wings were unformed and constantly changing, unlike his solid ice ones. They flickered with different colors, and shifted often, but did their job. From the howl that rose from Hyourinmaru's spirit, Hitsugaya could tell that his ice dragon zanpakuto hated this enemy instinctively.

_What's the matter, Hyourinmaru?_

His only answer was an offended snarl, and the distinct impression that the creature standing before him was _wrong_, somehow. Like a clone, doomed to live as only a shadow copy of the original, twisted beyond what was natural. Hitsugaya steeled his heart, determined to make Captain Kurotsuchi pay somehow.

Their first clash was so powerful that it blasted each back for several feet. Hitsugaya actually had to use both hands to keep his sword steady. It still stung his hands. Copy or not, she was not holding back at all. A flash of movement caught his eye, and he whirled around to block another attack.

In an instant, he summoned the cover of mist. It was actually a pretty simple matter, to call water molecules nearby and consolidate them into clouds. Within seconds, visibility was gone, and Hitsugaya dropped down into hiding. This was his domain, no matter how you thought about it. There was plenty of water in the air, and it would be more than enough to weaken the fire that made up Ayame's bankai.

The only warning he got was the sizzling of water molecules as something approached. Fast.

Relying on instinct, he dodged to the right. In the next split second, a torrent of fire split apart the cloud. One fireball struck his left wing, nearly knocking him out of the protection of the cloud. The damage created a clean hole, causing him to fall several meters before it repaired itself. If he got hit by another one of those head on...

_Now would be a good time to get serious._

But there was no time to retaliate with a strong attack of his own. The temperature was slowly rising. He could see what she was doing now. It would be too dangerous to go in the cloud and seek him out, so she was trying to evaporate the cloud. But she had definitely overlooked, or underestimated his own bankai.

It became a mental battle. Hyourimaru dissipated into a million slivers of ice, darting in and out among the molecules of water, convincing them to resist the heat. And Ayame continued, in her berserker fashion, to blast torrent after torrent of fire in his general direction. Most of the energy spread out, increasing the temperature, urging the water to evaporate to a higher location.

Hitsugaya let Hyourinmaru do what the weapon did best, but that didn't mean that the young captain was helpless. He searched the cloud for a source of heat, where Ayame would be. A single blow from his sword could be lethal, deadly and silent.

He felt it swish through empty air.

_A trick,_ he realized. _Bait a hook and cast it, and sooner or later the fish will bite. Classical fisherman's tactic. I'm such an _idiot!

His first instinct was to flee, but an iron resolve made him think more clearly. This was actually his chance, for once, to deal an attack. Hitsugaya was getting tired of always being on the receiving end. Plus, it made him look bad in front of his division. Not that anyone in his division could see. But face was important in situations like these.

He let out a loud curse, while silently reforming his bankai with the strongest ice attack he could muster. Now _he _was the one casting the bait, and now all he needed to do was to get the timing right.

The sound of sizzling raindrops caught his attention once more. Hitsugaya scowled, which was his version of a smile. Only amateurs made the same mistake twice.

The reiatsu that he had been gathering up tore out of his hand and locked on a source of heat. Even Hitsugaya, the genius captain, felt a little drained after that attack. To think that he'd have to go this far. No wonder Ayame was known as the mod soul of the 9th division.

There was a sudden explosion and a terrible shredding sound. Ayame fell out of the cloud, missing half a wing, plummeting down to the ground below.

.

_Powerless...dammit! Why am I so powerless?_

Ayame realized that her thoughts sounded childishly petulant as she fell. Her wing was mending itself, but slowly. She would hit the ground long before she recovered her ability to fly.

_And I was so close too. A little more. Just a little more...Is my life really going to end like this?  
><em>

She fell through the sky so fast that it became blue streaks around her, and the wind tore at her hair and her skin. Distantly, she remembered something about always wanting to see the blue sky. How strange. Until now she had never really looked up at the sky, and now she was forced to do so, staring into the bright clear emptiness where the white-haired Captain and his huge wings of ice stood out like ink on glass.

Try as she might, she couldn't hate him. Not when he was hurtling toward her, eyes tightened with worry, hand outstretched.

_For what? _She wondered incoherently, before suddenly she was yanked out of free fall.

Hitsugaya spread out his wings of ice as far as they could go, desperately trying to slow down. But Ayame's added weight made it hard to maneuver, and dragged them both off to one side. They both crashed through the wall of a tower in the barracks, as Hitsugaya's wings quickly folded to absorb the impact. With a loud crashing sound, they both finally came to a rest on the other side of the wall, with Hitsugaya's wings shattering into dozens of pieces of ice.

Ayame found herself, to her great surprise, relatively unharmed. The next wave of emotion, after surprise, was indignation.

"Why did you save - "

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?" Hitsugaya thundered. Ayame shrank back. For a shinigami of his size, his voice sure was loud.

"I - "

"Are you out of your MIND? Using a bankai technique is only for shinigami who have trained for YEARS, if not DECADES. They're not easily copied. Even if you are some kind of modified mirror-like research subject from one of Kurotsuchi's twisted operations, there are LIMITS to what you can do!"

He had stood up, leaning on the hilt of his zanpakuto, which was now restored to its shikai state. His ice blue eyes bored into hers, furious.

Ayame, for her part, was struck dumb. _He knows?_

Hitsugaya did not seem to like taking silence as an answer. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" He roared.

She remained silent.

It wasn't that she wanted to infuriate Hitsugaya even further. She just couldn't answer, not with the torrent of protests rising in her heart. _It doesn't matter to you, _she thought. _You have everything. Power, status, recognition. There are legends about the white-haired child genius of the 10th division, who has a zanpakuto spirit of an ice dragon that only appears once every 500 years. I'm no one. I only have this sword, and nothing more._

"My my...is the ice captain Hitsugaya losing his cool? And in front of a girl too." A new voice intruded, high, sarcastic, filled with disdain. Ayame shuddered as the premonition of something terrible washed over her, like a sickness. She knew that if she turned around, something terrible would happen. She turned around anyway.

Standing before her were the four strangest individuals she had ever seen. A large, dark-skinned boy with folded arms and a silent face. A girl with long, braided dark hair. A young boy, absent-minded, staring off into the distance. And a red-haired boy, Ayame noticed with a shiver, that could have been her brother in another life.

The girl had been the one who had spoken.

Hitsugaya recovered first, returning to his professional demeanor. His voice still retained some of its sharpness, though, so that any shinigami would have flinched from his tone. "And who are you?"

"New members of your 10th division, transferred from Captain Kurotsuchi's 12th division." The girl, again, was the one who spoke.

Ayame's eyes widened, and she let out a gasp. Again, the sickness nearly overwhelmed her. There had been more. She had not been the last. As her eyes moved from one person to the next, she felt her horror grow.

As if he had read her thoughts, the redhead boy's face broke out into a cruel, disdainful smile. "It's alright, elder sister," his sinister voice sent shivers of terror down her spine. "We're here to take over for you."

* * *

><p>Er...just to make things clear...the redheaded boy only calls Ayame 'elder sister' because she was an earlier creation. So they consider her an older, less advanced prototype. Hence their disdain for her.<p>

I need to give them names...

Anyway, review review review! I'd really love to know what you think!


End file.
